Local illustrator leads Santa Cruz comic workshop

Kavya Shankar, 10, draws a comic book character at the Santa Cruz Art League on Saturday morning. Shankar was attending a comic book illustration class lead by local artist Brian Bowes. (Kevin Johnson -- Santa Cruz Sentinel)

“The secret is practice. Lots and lots of practice,” he said. “It’s not magic, this is a skill.”

On Saturday, Bowes lead a comic book workshop hosted by the Santa Cruz Art League. The class covered the basics, such as how to formulate characters, as well as using shading to add depth to characters and creating story arcs.

With pencils in hand and blank sheets of paper strewn in front of them, the four students readily accepted instruction from Bowes and learned quick tricks such as how to develop body shapes, postures and body details.

During a segment where he talked about how to draw ears, he told students they could use the number “5” to fill in the details of the inner ear. In another exercise, he showed how adding lines to the crooks of elbows and other joints created depth in the drawings.

An accomplished illustrator, Bowes demonstrated to students how their imagination could guide them as he created a cartoonish character with buck teeth, square ears and noodle-like arms in less than a minute. Though he drew each character with ease, he assured the students that it wasn’t a natural talent but something honed over the years.

“It’s like going to the gym: You just keep going back,” he said.

One of the students, 15-year-old Jenna Mandell, was quickly sketching along with the instructions. Mandell said she’s interested in drawing as a career and was encouraged by her mom to take the class.

“I have a whole array of characters and that’s why I’m here,” she said. “These are skills I’ve always wanted to develop but never had a chance to learn.”

The teen has been interested in drawing since she was younger and was vaguely familiar with the concepts being taught. But through the class, she said she could already see a change.

“I think I’m already starting to give things more body and shape,” she said, adding that each character she drew had individual shapes.

Bowes encouraged the students to not think of characters as strictly human. When 10-year-old Kavya Shankar drew an elephant as fashion designer, he smiled.

The young San Jose-resident had a strong interest in drawing comics, said her mother, Suhita Shirodkar.

Shirodkar is an artist herself, though she focuses on creating images from reality.

“She draws little comics strips. I just draw from observation. For me, it’s about learning the narrative,” she said.

Advertisement

Though the workshop focused on drawing comics, Shirodkar said the concepts to create the medium are advanced.

“I’m here to help her with concepts because she’s interested in the actual art,” she said. “For me, the storytelling is something you do in anything visual so it’s interesting to build on storytelling skills.”